Archive for the ‘On/File’ Category

On/File: A Continuing Record of People, Groups, Movements and Events Impacting Contemporary Religion

1) Emet Classical Academy is the first Jewish classical school, seeking to “make sense of the West in a Jewish way.” Most classical schools that have been established in recent years have backgrounds in Catholic and Protestant worlds, stressing engagement in foundational texts for Western civilization, learning Latin and Greek, and character formation. Emet, located […]

On/File: A Continuing Record of Groups, Movements, People, and Events Impacting Contemporary Religion

Launched on February 27 at the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) in Nairobi, Kenya, Al-Mizan: A Covenant for the Earth presents an Islamic outlook on the environment in a bid to strengthen local, regional, and international actions that would combat climate change and other threats to the planet. The result of […]

On/File: A Continuing Record of People, Groups, Movements, and Events Impacting Contemporary Religion

1) The After Party is seeking to become a leading publishing program to counteract the influence of Donald Trump and political polarization among evangelicals. Led by Duke Divinity consulting professor Curtis Chang, head of the program’s founding organization Redeeming Babel, and developed with two prominent “never-Trump” evangelicals, the New York Times columnist David French and […]

On/File: A Continuing Record of Events, People, Movements, and Groups Impacting Contemporary Religion

Romana Didulo, the self-proclaimed “Queen of Canada” has been among the most successful in starting a new religion based on QAnon conspiracies. Using Theosophical ideas found in earlier new religious movements, such as the I AM and the Church Universal and Triumphant movements, Didulo, who is almost 50 years old and originally from the Philippines, […]

On/File: A Continuing Record of People, Groups, Movements, and Events Impacting Contemporary Religion

While artificial intelligence (AI) has been imputed with spiritual, even mystical, power by its proponents and critics, Way of the Future is among the first organized religions based on the technology. The church was originally launched by Anthony Levandowski in 2015, while he was working on the self-driving technology Waymo for Google. Levandowski envisioned a […]

On/File: A Continuing Record of Groups, Movements, People, and Events Impacting Contemporary Religion

1) Vietnamese-American Catholics have become a source of vocational growth and vitality in the American church and the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement (VEYM) has served as their nerve center. While Vietnamese Americans make up only 1 to 2 percent of the American Catholic population, they represent 12 percent of seminarians. The VEYM has 136 chapters, […]

On/File: A Continuing Record of Groups, Movements, Individuals and Events Impacting Contemporary Religion

1) This summer, the film Sound of Freedom found both a worldwide audience and a place in the culture wars because of its religious and political associations. At the box office, the movie actually beat the supposed summer blockbusters, the final farewell to the “Indiana Jones” character and another installment of the “Mission Impossible” series, […]

On/File: A Continuing Record of People, Groups, Movements, and Events Impacting Contemporary Religion

1) Marcos Witt has emerged as a key Latino evangelical figure in the U.S., both for his praise and worship music and, more recently, his evangelism and social action, particularly through his AOA or America Ora Adora (America Prays and Adores) tour. The 61-year-old Witt may no longer be the most popular worship leader among […]

On/File: A Continuing Record of Groups, Movements, People, and Events Impacting Contemporary Religion

1) From its founding in 2006, the Moishe House movement has expanded considerably in building a sense of community among Jewish young adults. Moishe Houses started in order to meet the needs of young Jews who wanted to more actively engage in the Jewish community and were too old for Jewish life on campus and […]

On/File: A Continuing Record of People, Groups, Movements, and Events Impacting Contemporary Religion

The first-ever national House of Worship in the Bahá’í world was dedicated in late March on the outskirts of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Its design is “inspired by traditional artworks, structures and natural features of the DRC, as well as by the Bahá’í sacred teachings.” The Bahá’í Mother Temple for Africa […]